A few more questions

Sorry for all the questions, but i've got a few more...

1. How does magic work on Aenea in a roleplay sense? In pnp, arcane magic is used by drawing on the weave (or shadow weave, in some cases). Wizards learn how to do this by years of study, whereas bards and sorcerers have a natural talent for it. Clerics, druids, rangers, and paladins draw on divine energy that is provided by their diety. Do things still work the same way here, but with small changes? (ie: the weave being part of mystaras domain over....mystras from pnp)

2. Leveling. Where is a good place for mid-ish levels to try to gain xp? Sei is level 12 atm, i've been playing with the orcs, but i'm leveling at a pretty slow pace compared to some of the other players who used to be roughly the same level that I was. Am I...missing something?

3. How much RL knowledge is allowed into Aenea? For example, Sei studies martial skills/techniques as part of his studies. If say, I had some degree of RL knowledge of such things, would it be acceptable to roleplay knowing them IG to some degree, provided I had the correct levels/classes/feats to represent such knowledge?

Edit: The above reminds me of a similar, but different question
4. Is it acceptable to roleplay a weapon as a different, well...weapon than what it says it is, provided you can come up with an acceptable/logical reason?

For example, equipping a whip in one hand and a kama in the offhand and roleplaying it as a Kusarigama.

msterswrdsmn wrote:1. How does magic work on Aenea in a roleplay sense? In pnp, arcane magic is used by drawing on the weave (or shadow weave, in some cases). Wizards learn how to do this by years of study, whereas bards and sorcerers have a natural talent for it. Clerics, druids, rangers, and paladins draw on divine energy that is provided by their diety. Do things still work the same way here, but with small changes? (ie: the weave being part of mystaras domain over....mystras from pnp)

Magic in Aenea flows invisibly across and through the world. It eddies and swirls around minor magical objects and creatures, and pours into and through powerful items and spellcasters. The Flow is constantly moving, and those that are able to actually see it are often mesmerized for days.

msterswrdsmn wrote:2. Leveling. Where is a good place for mid-ish levels to try to gain xp? Sei is level 12 atm, i've been playing with the orcs, but i'm leveling at a pretty slow pace compared to some of the other players who used to be roughly the same level that I was. Am I...missing something?

Keep exploring every corner of every area. You may find places you've missed, with dangers and reward you weren't getting. Oh, and I'm sure there are others here that have plenty of advice on this question.

msterswrdsmn wrote:3. How much RL knowledge is allowed into Aenea? For example, Sei studies martial skills/techniques as part of his studies. If say, I had some degree of RL knowledge of such things, would it be acceptable to roleplay knowing them IG to some degree, provided I had the correct levels/classes/feats to represent such knowledge?

For that sort of thing, you might want to get inventive and descriptive. Instead of using the "real life" terms and names for many of the styles/techiniques/actions (which nobody is going to understand anyway), make up something descriptive and fantasy-worldish.

msterswrdsmn wrote:Edit: The above reminds me of a similar, but different question
4. Is it acceptable to roleplay a weapon as a different, well...weapon than what it says it is, provided you can come up with an acceptable/logical reason?

For example, equipping a whip in one hand and a kama in the offhand and roleplaying it as a Kusarigama.

Kusarigama, kusarigama...no clue what that is. Checking wikipedia....ah, ok "chain sickle". Sure, why not? It appears to be a logical weapon...chain (aka NWN whip) on one end to entangle an opponent's weapon (Disarm), kama for the other hand to do actual damage.

Keep exploring every corner of every area. You may find places you've
missed, with dangers and reward you weren't getting. Oh, and I'm sure
there are others here that have plenty of advice on this question.

I don't suppose any areas come to mind?

Thanks for the answers tho'. It helps alot!

I tend to like Sargoth's temple and the things underneath it.

Just need to figure out how to make myself immune to having my brain eaten.

If you can show sei how to get down there he can probably help you IG with the brain eating issue

We can probably do that.

" Just need to figure out how to make myself immune to having my brain eaten. "


potions of mind protections ( mind blank ) works for that.

Also, the kusarigama idea is pretty cool.

Do you find that combination to be effective in combat? I always have trouble properly using Disarm, Knockdown, and similar feats in combat.

Honestly? I just pulled the kusarigama off the top of my head. I've never seroiusly used it...though it could probably do fairly well, if you tweak things correctly. Having a full BAB build, or a high AB is a must, but its definetly doable, if you don't mind the whips 1d2 damage. If your having trouble with disarm, the disarm attempt is calculated like this...
attack roll+weapon size modifier/penalty-6 vs 1d20+discipline score.

I do have another question though! Is cornersneaking considered legitamite here?

If you don't know what cornersneaking is, its a pvp tactic for stealthers. Basically, you attack the person from stealth, run for your life, break their line of sight, then restealth.

Almost all the pvp servers and roleplay i've been on considered it legit, even on servers where shadowdancers were banned. It was a heck of a lot fairer than HIPs spamming because it forced the rogue to move back, and to re-approach a person gave those 2-4 rounds of spot/listen checks that HIPs spamming denies. It makes sense from a roleplay perspective as well, as your pretty much breaking the line of sight (making it so they can't see you) and taking the oppertunity to re-conceal yourself. Given how nwn doesn't support vertical player movement, "concealing" could be roleplayed as climbing up the tree you hid behind, jumping up onto the roof of the house you ran behind, etc.

It also, unlike HIPs spamming, gives the person(s) in question a chance to catch you, or reposition themselves in a more favorable position, retreat, or cast a spell to help find said rogue. It also forces the rogue to play to the terrain rather than HIPs spamming or running back and forth through an area transition via stealth. @_@ I probalby should ask about this tho' before assuming.

I can't speak for the power that be, but as a fellow player, I'd say 'I want that running-sneaky guy on MY team"

msterswrdsmn wrote:Is cornersneaking considered legitamite here?

Sure. I don't see why not.

How long do those mind blank potions work? (And would protection from evil work instead?)

The mindblank potions work for a decent amount of time. several minutes. Protection from evil works as well, as does clarity, any spell that gives protection vs mindspells will block effects such as confusion, daze, domination, ect.

Told you DT~
*casts a mind-protection spell that lasts 24 IG hours per casting*
Also, thanks for the replies! It really helps me out here.

I'll have to remember that whole "cornersneaking" thing the next time I see you ... *hides a gigantic flyswatter in back-pocket*

*preps extended hold monster and truesight*
Bring it!
(no, just kidding! I don't wanna die again~)

Sorry, but a few more questions...

-Spawn difficulty: Just how are they determined. Upon coming here, I was told summons were the way to go if soloing with a mage. I'm rather thankful I decided to make one of those weird mage-offshoots that spends almost as much time meleeing as casting, because summons, for me at least, made things -much- harder.

For example, with the Orcs at K'nor Scar. Regularly, about 2 or 3 per spawn would appear when Sei was level 10-11. I decided "hey, lets make this a bit easier" and summoned a hound archeron before starting up again and buffed it to kingdom come. Went over to the orcs and...holy heck! About 8 to 12 orcs per spawn instead of the usual 3. Needless to say, I haven't tried using the archeron for orcs since then. How exactly is the spawn difficulty determined? Player level, party size and summons seem to raise it, but are there any other factors i've missed? Is it just the general CR of everyone in the area at the time?

Houses: I've been playing around with building a house area, but I'm having a bit of difficulty finding any info on it. I was able to find most of the answers, but I have a few things to double check/ask...
-Should indoor area should be no greater than 10x10 in the area wizard creater (roughly a "medium" sized area), correct?
-No persistant storage aside from the etheral chest
-"Decorative" npcs, like a golem standing in the corner or whatnot...yay or nay? I'm thinking no, but it never hurts to ask

-Disarm: Is there any ruling in regards to getting hit with disarm and loosing a custom weapon as a result? Ex: You get hit with disarm and it ends up "falling" over the edge of a cliff.

Spawns: I was under the impression that temporary summons do not affect spawn challenge ratings. Companions and familiars do, I think, but only because they are permanent like other players in the area. If you get extra orcs with the archon, it may have been the result of triggering several spawn points at once... or I could be totally wrong

Houses: I thought the maximum area was 8x8? Small area...
Persistent Storage: I have a barrel and a cupboard in my house. They will store things, but unlike an ethereal chest, they will not keep their contents after a reset.
Decorative NPCs: I have seen these in other houses, so I don't think its an issue.

Disarm/Losing custom weapons: If you lose a custom item by this or other means... well, there is no easy way to get it back. Wait for a DM and ask really nicely, and we will probably help you. (watch out for rust monsters!)

Summons have always increased spawns for me just as well as familiars, companions, and other added creatures to my party.

Gotcha. I thought it was odd for a minute that things like bandit leaders were popping up at level 11, but not at level 14...guess that explains it.

Also, about the npcs, do they have to be npcs straight from the pallete? Or is some degree of customization allowed for that as well?

Also, is there a fixed limit of placeables allowed? Obviously i'm gonna try hard not to go crap-happy (i've done some previous mapping with other programs and lots of random junk=bad), but is there some limitation set in order to keep up server performance that I missed?

30 is the limit if i am not mistaken...

Spawns are influenced by your party size/power when they are triggered.

House NPCs...something from the palette, then I'll strip it of scripts and items and such once I get your area.

House placeables...no guidelines at this moment, they should almost all be set to static (it's a checkbox when you edit the item). As far as the number of them...we'll see how things go with Ignatious' new place.

House size...I made a mistake in the book. You can go up to 100 tiles (10x10 or other arrangement).

Gotcha. Thanks for the answers.

Though now i've got another question, this one in regards to the skills. I noticed yesterday after falling face-first into a lava pit that the jump dc was...15, I think? It seemed odd that i failed it, as I thought I had the boots of jumping and striding on and had a jump score of 17...even though the skill roll said I had rolled a 9. But I might've been wrong about the boots and let it go. I got some of the xp back anyhow from piety.

Today tho' I noticed that I was unable to swim down to the aquar alter in vale. For one reason or another, I was taking a massive penalty to my swim checks. I have a swim skill of about 6, but I was rolling -14, -10, -6....I couldn't even hit a dc of 1 without multiple attempts! Is this a bug? Or are things such as armor check penalties taken into consideration. And if there are other penalties, what would give me a -10 penalty? @_@ Its not the armor, as its only a -2 penalty check with a mithiril shirt.

Swimming, jumping, and climbing all take into account armor check penalties and the weight you are carrying (-1 per 10 pounds of stuff). The info skills command should now properly reflect this (as of a few days ago).

Although, now that I think of it, I should add a parameter to those skill checks to take direction into account (if swimming down, make the weight into a bonus instead of a penalty, disregard if jumping down or climbing down).

Sorry, but a few more questions...*pulls thread back up*

1. About how long does it take to recieve custom items after sending them? I sent some maybe...3 weeks ago and still haven't gotten 'em. I don't mind, really, as I'm sure AE has a lot going on, but I thought i'd ask, in the event i'd done something horribly horribly wrong when making/sending said items.

2. If i haven't gotten said items yet, is it possible to re-submit different items of the same value? Like say, I submitted a 20k dagger, then changed my mind about what i wanted a few days later. I hadn't gotten said dagger yet, so I decided to make and send over say...a 20k shortbow instead. This doable? I know its a hassle, but I suddenly got a spurt of indecisiveness and want to tweak some of the stuff i sent but haven't recieved yet.

Go ahead and send the bow, since for some reason I don't have the dagger one in my email.

Those were just examples. I never made a bow or dagger...the stuff i made were

1. 20k gauntlets (Combat Gloves, tho' i sent both an original and a revised copy)
2. 40k Amulet of Defense (have a revised version, "Sei's Amulet of Power")
3. 80k Scimitar (Shamshir of Sei)

I'll go resend these

Edit: Do you have a program like winrar that can unzip files? Or should I attach each item file individually? I was gonna organize 'em into folders and zip 'em since they're all named the same bloody thing @_@

Edit Edit: Can i just export all 3 items in the same export file?

Edit edit edit: sent!

Generally...as a suggestion here...i start thinking bout my custom item when i get to within 5 hours of gettin the actual voucher. This gives me plenty of time to tinker in the toolset and decide what it is i want.

This way if while your playin you decide you want something different for your upcoming voucher you can change your mind.

As for how long...it can take a while to get it in...he has lots of bugs to squash i imagine..plus workin on new content and such puts the vouchers lower on the totem pole then that stuff. He has gotten one of my items to me in less then 3 days...and one it took a week or so, it just depends on how busy he is.

Housing can take weeks sometimes...as that requires him to code all the transitions in and change wp's in your house and so on.

Correct me if im wrong though

Custom items are actually pretty high on my list of things to add. It might just take some time since in addition to building and running a PW, I'm a dad with two very active sons (2 & 5 years old), a husband (the wife likes some time occasionally), and a grad student (working on becoming a biology teacher).

Player houses can take more time, since in addition to fixing any area transitions, waypoints, doors, etc., I have to go through and put in Aenea-specific triggers and scripts, check all placeables (to make sure that only things like chairs are not "static", to cut down on server load), make sure there aren't any extra added scripts (houses do not need any) or anything not already in the palette (gotta keep module resources down), and do any other miscellaneous overviewing.

And when you get a house sent that looks like it was built by Kefrem (ie, hundreds or thousands of placeables) , it can take a lot longer.

No worries. Feel free to take your time. I'm in no real hurry, and if there are more pressing issues at hand, I'm gonna be the last person to scream at ya for not giving me a cookie.

Mmmm...cookies...

Im sorry *hides* lol i like details. On an interesting note..in my years of building i noticed that if you put tons and tons in an entry way...you take forever to load.

Yet if i leave the entry way relatively bare..like in iggys tower..and berenices entrance and crideas's place...the game only initially loads what your character can see so the load time is minimal. When you walk deeper into your house can see the objects materialize as you get close to them.

Hence why i leave the entryways as usually just hallways from a door and/or a foyer with just a hanging chandelier or something.

I like details, too.

I didn't think about the entries thing. Good info.

Whoo! got the items! Thank ya!